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Stamford Volunteer Fire Chiefs Say They Were Not Invited To Hurricane Tabletop Drill

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STAMFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) — An emergency preparedness drill was held this week in Stamford, but some say not everyone got the call to participate.

Stamford has both professional and volunteer firefighters, but some volunteer fire chiefs said they felt slighted when they were not invited to a tabletop hurricane drill in the city this week.

“I don’t believe there was any malice behind it. It’s just that we’re in very sensitive negotiations right now and things like this don’t help,” Long Ridge Fire Company Chief Stuart Teitelbaum told WCBS 880’s Sean Adams. “They put a bad taste in some people’s mouths.”

Stamford Volunteer Fire Chiefs Say They Were Not Invited To Hurricane Tabletop Drill

But Stamford Public Safety Director Ted Jankowski said it was a misunderstanding.

“If it was a live drill, we would have all units participating from each of the departments,” he said. “For this tabletop exercise, it was the policy level decision makers that were present.”

He said Fire Chief Peter Brown attended on behalf of all.

“Chief Brown represented the Stamford Fire Department, which is comprised of both volunteer and career fire companies,” he said. “Fire Chief Brown will be providing an exercise summary, with lessons learned, to be distributed to all units both volunteer and career.”

Teitelbaum said he later received a call from Jankowski and Brown to “smooth things out.”

“I got a good feeling over it,” he said.

For years, there have been frictions between the professional and volunteer firefighters since a 2012 charter revision, Adams reported. They are working towards improving communication and cooperation.